It’s a crowded backfield, but Duke Johnson has his role intact

If you’re in a PPR league, don’t avoid the entire Cleveland backfield. I agree that it’ll be crowded on early downs between Carlos Hyde and Nick Chubb, but one of the best pass-catching RBs signed a new deal with the team to play that role. In 2017, they started to use him correctly, and there’s still room for improvement in his usage. He had 10+ PPR fantasy points in 12 games last season, and 14+ points in 9 of them – and that’s because he was catching between 4 and 9 balls almost every week. We also know Tyrod likes to dump the ball off. Duke works great as a high floor RB2 if you go zero RB, and even better as a flex. You’ll also have more flexibility in having a high ceiling player in your lineup because of his high floor.

As long as Hue Jackson’s the coach, we should expect similar target numbers for Duke. With a better offense in store for 2018, Duke’s ceiling rises. Will you be looking for Duke to have that weekly floor? Or will he be on your bench for a bye week or for a good matchup in case you go RB heavy early?